Catalyzing an ecosystem of co-creators for the cloud

There is no doubt that cloud has transformed the IT industry. This transformation has only accelerated due to the global pandemic, with many organizations leaning on hybrid clouds to achieve the necessary balance of speed, efficiency and scale offered by cloud-native technologies and the reliability of existing on-premises infrastructure. As a result, how customers access cloud technology and services has evolved. Now more than ever before, customers lean on an ecosystem of diverse partners to help guide their transformation efforts and consume IT in a variety of ways to deploy innovative solutions.

Yesterday we heard Paul Cormier reference the new normal for IT. At Red Hat, we believe that this new normal, and any future norm in IT, is driven and supported by a partner ecosystem. More specifically, an ecosystem of highly skilled, aligned partners committed to working hand-in-hand with Red Hat and each other to deliver customer success. We are firmly focused on catalyzing co-creation among the Red Hat ecosystem and within the network of ecosystems our partners bring - powered by open collaboration and community-driven technologies, core components of Red Hat’s identity. 

Let’s look at what Red Hat is already doing with partners to bolster co-creation and customer success through open hybrid cloud. 

Trailblazers for open hybrid cloud

You have heard us say this many times, and the fact remains: Red Hat is built on the ecosystem. We would not be where we are today - a leader in open hybrid cloud technology - without our partner ecosystem. 

IDC predicts that, over the next two years, 92% of customers will recognize that a cross-ecosystem approach is essential to successfully adopting and implementing a digital-first business strategy¹. For us, this means that collaborative ecosystem solutions based on a diverse set of technologies and services are key to helping our customers find success in today’s hybrid cloud era and beyond. 

Earlier this week we announced an expanding collaboration with Accenture, one of our strongest allies in developing and co-innovating hybrid cloud offerings. Raj Wickramasing, Global Lead of Hybrid and Emerging Cloud Platforms at Accenture, joined me at Red Hat Summit to discuss our shared vision and the impact we bring to customers: 

“We [Accenture and Red Hat] have a rich history in serving our clients together and creating tremendous value in the market. A couple of years ago, Accenture doubled down on the cloud transformation market by investing in our Cloud First business. The next step in our strategy is to look beyond migration to enable our clients to truly grow and innovate their business in the cloud. It’s no longer enough to operate in a single cloud or solely on-premises…The opportunities for customers to access and build on hybrid cloud are growing, and Red Hat is there to support them at every turn - on-premises, across public clouds, through cloud marketplaces and as managed services.”

To Raj’s point, simplicity of operation is critical. This is exactly what we aim to bring to customers - simplicity in accessing technologies and services that streamline operation and innovation in the hybrid cloud. Furthermore, unlocking the rich value of hybrid cloud relies on deep collaboration across a diverse ecosystem. Working together with partners like Accenture, while also collaborating with cloud providers and software vendors, means that customers benefit from layered capabilities and greater interoperability across a heterogeneous IT footprint to truly transform their business.

Co-creation on the frontlines

As I mentioned, the notion of co-creation will be a consistent theme for Red Hat and our ecosystem strategy over the next few years. In many ways, this is already happening within our ecosystem, and Red Hat is committed to opening the door even further to encourage co-innovation between partners and their ecosystems, fostering an ecosystem of ecosystems. 

In Red Hat’s recent State of Enterprise Open Source report, we discovered that 80% of surveyed organizations plan to increase their use of open source software for emerging technologies in the next two years. This comes as no surprise, as we continue to see a rising interest and need for solutions to support edge computing, AI/ML or DevOps for hybrid cloud to modernize IT systems. 

Today I had the opportunity to connect with Intel about our recent efforts in cultivating collaboration and innovation with developers. Developers are on the frontlines of refining business-critical applications and technologies. Built on Red Hat OpenShift, Intel DevCloud enables developers to build out edge workload configurations and collaborate directly with customer developer teams. Here’s what Arun Gupta, Vice President and General Manager of Open Ecosystem at Intel, had to say about our work together: 

“By building [Intel] DevCloud on Red Hat OpenShift, we’re able to give developers the flexibility to test solutions and perform customized benchmarks across a diverse set of hardware choices, because OpenShift is in many ways a universal hybrid cloud platform. We all know that hybrid cloud is all about choice and flexibility - choosing where you want to run your business in the cloud, with the flexibility to innovate in order to support the future of your business. That’s the value that OpenShift brings to Intel DevCloud.”

We also heard from our long-time partner NVIDIA about our joint efforts to deliver artificial intelligence (AI) innovation through Red Hat OpenShift. AI is one of those innovations that captures the imagination and provides endless possibilities, but it is a journey to turn that into real business results for customers. To help support customers on this journey, NVIDIA teamed up with Red Hat to offer NVIDIA AI Enterprise and its Launchpad AI lab on Red Hat OpenShift. Justin Boitano, Vice President of Enterprise and Edge Computing at NVIDIA, explained the importance of collaboration for AI success: 

“We have teamed up with Red Hat and software ISV partners, including providers of the latest MLOps applications, to build a host of data science and AI labs for both developers and their IT teams to help companies quickly prepare for success…We started with Red Hat on the journey to cloud-native before the path was clear…Our goal is to democratize AI for customers. So, we’re teaming up with the entire ecosystem to enable our shared customers to solve the world’s most significant challenges with AI.”

Tune in to Red Hat Summit to hear more about how we are generating real results for customers worldwide. For the latest news and updates, visit the Red Hat Summit newsroom.

¹ Source: IDC, The Future of Distribution, Doc # EUR145780620, April 2022.